DoL: Effect of Overseas Outsourcing Limited on
Jobs

June 10, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Even though many
Americans have raised a hue and cry over U.S. companies
outsourcing jobs to less expensive markets, the government
said Thursday that most outsourced positions never leave the
country.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S.
Department of Labor said that of the 182,456 private
sector nonfarm workers who were separated from their jobs
for at least 31 days in the first quarter of 2004
(excluding seasonal and vacations), the separations of
16,021 workers in 119 layoffs were triggered when their
jobs were outsourced, of that amount, 4,633 workers in 34
layoff events were shown the door when their jobs went
overseas.

“In more than seven out of 10 cases, the work
activities were reassigned to places elsewhere in the
U.S.,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its report
on mass layoffs for the January-to-March period.

When seasonal and vacation-related mass layoffs are
taken out, the proportion of workers who lost their jobs
due to overseas outsourcing rises to about 2.5 out of
100. Another 9,985 workers lost their jobs because the
work moved to a different location within America, BLS
said.

However, the report showed outsourcing had a huge
impact on whether work sites were permanently shut-down
or just temporarily closed. Fifty-one percent of mass
layoffs caused by outsourcing were permanent closures of
the work site, compared to just 17 percent of total
layoffs, the government said.